Could California Go All in On Renewable Energy?

The effects of global warming are frequently projected decades into the future, but two recent reports -- one from the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the other from the U.N. -- put into sharp focus visible consequences of our warming planet.
An increase in temperature, extreme weather, loss of ice and rising sea level are just a few of changes we can measure right now. Let's take a look at some of the most concerning trends.
BLOG: War Of The Words: Climate Change Or Global Warming?

John Hyde/Design Pics/Corbis

View Caption+

Glaciers are shrinking worldwide and permafrost is thawing in high-latitude and high-elevation areas, reports this year's Fifth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
BLOG: Dire Outlook For Climate Impacts, New Report Says

Eric Meola/Corbis

View Caption+

Only a few extinctions are attributed to climate change, reports the IPCC, but climate change that occurred much more slowly, over millions of years, caused major ecosystem shifts and species extinctions.
Land and sea animals are changing their geographic ranges and migratory patterns due to climate change.
NEWS: Climate Change: Why Haven't We Done More?

Nick Garbutt

View Caption+

Sea level around the world has increased by about 8 inches since 1880, reports the 2014 National Climate Assessment, which projects a 1 to 4 foot rise by the end of the century.
PHOTOS: Craziest Environmental Ideas (That Could Work)

Jagdish Agarwal/Dinodia/Corbis

View Caption+

Excess CO2 is dissolving in the ocean and decreasing the pH of seawater. The ocean is about 30 percent more acidic than it was in pre-industrial times.
More acidity in the oceans makes it harder for animals to form calcium carbonate shells and skeletons and erodes coral reefs.
11 Health Threats from Climate Change

Massimo Brega/The Lighthouse//Vi/Visuals Unlimited/Corbis

View Caption+

The probability of a Sandy-like storm deluging New York, New Jersey and other parts of the East Coast has nearly doubled compared to 1950, according to the American Meteorological Society. Even weaker storms will be more damaging now than they were 10 years ago because of rising sea levels.
Superstorm Sandy cost the nation $65 billion, according to the 2014 National Climate Assessment, and 2012's Hurricane Isaac cost $2.3 billion.

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis

View Caption+

The global sea level rises along with the temperature for two major reasons. For one, heat causes water to expand, which causes the existing water to take up more space and encroach on the coast. At the same time, ice at the poles and in glaciers melts and increases the amount of water in the oceans.
PHOTOS: Melting Glaciers

Paul Souders/Corbis

View Caption+

Across the United States, heavy downpours are on the rise, especially in the Northeast and Midwest. Increases in extreme precipitation are expected for all U.S. regions, reports the 2014 National Climate Assessment.
NEWS: Shrinking Greenland Glacier Smashes Speed Record

MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER/Reuters/Corbis

View Caption+

The most recent IPCC report states with "very high confidence" that current climate-related extremes like heat waves, droughts, floods, cyclones and wildfires are showing that countries around the world, at all development levels, are significantly unprepared.
The American Meteorological Society estimates that approximately 35 percent of the extreme heat in the eastern United States between March and May 2012 resulted from human activities' effects on climate. The AMS warned that deadly heat waves will become four times more likely in the north-central and northeastern United States as the planet continues to warm.
NASA: Global Warming Goes On

Ted Soqui/Ted Soqui Photography/Corbis

‹
›

A Stanford professor has presented a plan to power all of the Golden State’s energy needs with renewable energy by 2050.

“If implemented, this plan will eliminate air pollution mortality and global warming emissions from California, stabilize prices and create jobs -- there is little downside,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, the study’s lead author and a Stanford professor of civil and environmental engineering, in a press release.

After that initial investment, though, the researchers say the plan would save about $103 billion per year in health costs per year, and about $48 billion per year in climate change costs (such as coastal erosion and extreme weather damage).

The study, published in the journal Energy, is the second of its kind. The authors wrote a similar plan for New York, and are working on plans for all 50 states. The reports propose using technology that is currently available.

“Like New York, California has a clear choice to make: Double down on 20th-century fossil fuels or accelerate toward a clean, green-energy future,” said Anthony Ingraffea, a Cornell University engineering professor and study co-author.

Most of California’s energy now comes from oil, natural gas, nuclear power and some coal. The breakdown of the alternative-energy plan would be 55.5 percent from solar, 35 percent from wind and the remainder from a combination of hydroelectric, geothermal, tidal and wave energy.